Very Useful Personal Branding Tips for Designer Community

The people who belong to any field of creativity (in general) and the designers (in particular) know the inevitable importance of branding. Although the term Personal Branding has been around for quite some time, however, it has never been more popular and more in need for the professionals to stand out, than nowadays. The kind of basic social strategies which companies and large enterprises used to need are now being executed by the candidates themselves. The term ‘personal branding’ has a very large spectrum i.e. from personal and professional blogs, twitter feeds, social networks and bookmarks to online portfolios or visual CVs.

Either you are a salaried designer working for a design house, or a freelance designer maintaining your own design business, the fact is that nobody cares about your business, they care about you and the value you can provide to them. As a professional designer, you work hard on your business networking over the years. You would never want to damage your contact by selling them something inappropriate. The bottom line is that people do not buy from companies; they buy from people whom they trust. Similarly, it has become almost inevitable for the designer community to do personal branding. It doesn’t matter how good you are. What matters is how good you are at showing it to the world, and here is where personal branding comes.

Following are some tips that may help you manage your personal branding well, as a designer:

Your Name is the Game

The first step towards personal branding is to establish your name. If people know you by your name, it will be termed a success in your self-branding. It is important that the brand name you choose for your design services should be your own name. Mostly renowned graphic designers use their own name to shine and create a lasting personal brand, rather than having a website named or blog named in the form of a company. Resultantly, when you deliver quality work to the market, your name will be equally important to your niche.

Consistency in Quality

There is a fierce competition out there in the design community. So in order to stand from the rest of your competitors, you need to keep the quality of your work consistent. You must establish yourself as a passionate designer who consistently delivers quality work and must continually produce great work that is linked to your name. Compromising on quality of your work will eat away your personal brand like termites. If your work value starts dropping, so will your name alongside your brand.

Your Visibility in the Market

Your visibility in the market is very important when it comes to building a personal brand. By the dint of a few measures, you can create and maintain a good visibility of yourself in the market. For instance, start guest posting on high-traffic blogs about design, befriend other people in your niche and take advantage of some famous social websites in order to spread the word about your brand and expand your network. Apart from online presence, make face-to-face interactions as well i.e. attend relevant networking events and try out some public speaking.

Choose a Niche and Establish Yourself In It

Personal brand is all about who you are and so it becomes crucial for you to select a niche for your persona. In order to establish yourself as the ‘best from the rest’, create your own niche that increases your visibility in the market. Your selected niche should involve the application of one’s name to various products. After choosing a niche for yourself, the second step is to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field. Once you have done that concentrate on who you are and what you stand for within your selected niche.

Authenticity in Branding

Originality is the key when it comes to personal branding. You need to honor the essence of what you really are and embrace it. Your art and creative work reflect your personality, character, values, ambitions and vision. Whichever avatar you take up, will be depicted in your work. Unlike other professional fields, false pretends are impossible to achieve in graphic design in particular. So being authentic about whatever you do is very important in establishing your personal branding.

Branding Through Social Media

Social media marketing of yourself and your business is perhaps the most common medium of personal branding. However, the more common this platform is the greater are your chances to get de-tracked or slip away in the crowd of millions. Everyone should understand that personal branding is just not a buzz-word or a way for self-promotion. It is process by which we can market ourselves to the whole world. Your personal brand on the social media platform says about who you are, what you do, and your leading quality in the eyes of your ideal target market. Today there are tons of social media tools available on the web (and some of these mediums are exclusively for the designer community) to help you achieve incredible heights in no time. So, each one of us designers should understand the process to master it.

Make Your Connectivity Easier

No matter you brand yourself through your blog, social media platform, your website or via your business card, it is very important to let people contact you real easy. In this regard you can create social profiles at Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs and more, so that your word is spread all over and your audience is able to locate you easily. You can also use your business card and email letters to strength your personal brand identity. Also, do highlight your personal brand message with professional marketing communications tools.

The Crux…

As a designer, you are so fortunate that your work is pure creativity. As a result, your self- branding strategies should be equally creative. Personal branding is far more easy than you think. Personal branding is the best way to attract traffic to you and your business. Personal blog, social media or marketing in person, whichever medium you choose, it should depict a very strong and un-shakelable image of you and your work. Also, Building strong reputation is the most important thing you could do to maintain your brand. Build a solid personal brand with online activities which will further promote your personal mission and emphasize your career success optimistically. The most common of these activities are personal website and a personal blog.

Create your own personal branding website with your domain name, so that when web surfers and other employers search your name, they get information about your career history, personal information and educations qualifications. On the other hand, with a personalized blog you write blogs that attract the target audience to whom you want to market your products or services. You write about topics that are of value to them. You demonstrate that you are an expert on whom they trust. And this is all the personal branding game is all about!